Widening their reach

Friendship Circle unites special-needs, volunteer children so all profit from companionship

Slender and dark-haired like her mother, Shifra Kalman steps forward to shake hands, meeting an adult visitor’s gaze directly, his greeting — “How are you?” — with a simple response.

“Hi. I’m fine.”

Standing straight in a white blouse and dark skirt, Shifra seemed poised beyond her 10 years.

But Jeaniene Kalman knows the anxiety her daughter harbors when she encounters new people.

Thousand people in Paris demand justice for Ilan Halimi

More than Thousand Jews marched on Sunday in the streets of Paris, demanding justice for Ilan Halimi, the 23-year-old Jewish man who was abducted, tortured and killed near Paris by an organised and dangerous gang.

The spontaneous gathering failed to get support from any Jewish organization.

Information on the demonstration circulated within the Jewish community through mobile phone and e-mail messages.

Marchers walked down Voltaire Boulevard, past the mobile phone store where Ilan Halimi used to work and where he was approached by his killers a month ago.

raging blaze in Brooklyn

Our FireFighters, Our Heros

An 80-year-old woman and several other terrified elderly residents were plucked to safety by hero firefighters battling a ferocious blaze that left dozens homeless in Brooklyn yesterday.

“Thank God I’m here,” said Carrie Agard, 80, after being rescued from her fiery, second-floor Crown Heights apartment building.

“I was scared, but [the firefighter] said he was with me, and he kept me calm. You couldn’t see for all the black smoke. It was hard for me to breathe.

”I was glad he had me,” added the shaken woman, a retired postal worker who had lived in the four-story apartment building at 1440 Pacific St. for five decades.

Shoulder, mentor, friend

Making new friends can be a challenge for any child, but it can be extra difficult for children with special needs. One Bergen County program pairs Orthodox Jewish teens with physically and mentally disabled Jewish youngsters in an effort not only to form new friendships but also to provide role models.

The program, Friendship Circle, under the auspices of Friends of Lubavitch of Bergen County, helps families with special needs children and gives teenagers the opportunity to learn more about people with disabilities, said Zeesy Grossbaum, program organizer.

International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women in Session

The 18th annual conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchos, known more simply as “the Kinus,” is in session at Lubavitch Headquarters. With more than 1700 women registered for tonight’s main event, the banquet dinner at the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel, the conference’s highlight event will soon be going the way of the men’s banquet, which has outgrown all facilities in Brooklyn and has had to move it to Manhattan.

Along with the Shluchos—or female representatives—are about 150 lay leaders who have joined their respective Shluchos from around the world. A program designed for the lay leaders running parallel to the Conference program, introduced the guests to Shluchot and fellow lay leaders who were drawn to Chabad under interesting and sometimes unlikely circumstances.

garbage truck crashes into garage

On Sunday afternoon a NYC garbage truck driving westbound through the alleyway between Union St & President – Albany & Kingston crashed into a roofless garage belonging to a member of Anash who lives on Union St.

The garbage truck crashed into the roll-up gate pushing it onto and smashing the front of the parked minivan. The crash also led to the collapse of the cinder block walls on both sides of the garage.

The cops were called and ticketed the driver of the garbage truck.

Though there was extensive damage done, B”H no one was hurt.

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